In this lesson, we will cover 8 learning objectives
Very often you would have referred to something as being "political" or used the phrase "all about politics". At a very basic level, it refers to a power struggle between people or groups. The basic idea is that politics is a process of maneuvering to assert rival interests.
The set of activities through which people make decisions in groups, or form power relations between individuals such as the distribution of resources or status is politics. Through politics, people make, preserve, and amend the general rules under which they live. It is an essentially social activity that is linked to the existence of diversity and conflict on one hand, and willingness to cooperate and act collectively on the other hand.
Politics is also seen as a search for conflict resolution rather than the actual resolution of conflict because all conflicts cannot be resolved. The term 'politics' may be used positively in the context of a political solution that is non-violent and compromising, or with a negative connotation as in 'the art or science of government or political parties".
There is no single answer to the question "What is politics?". Like many political concepts, politics is itself a contested concept.
The branch of social science that studies politics is called political science.
In everyday life, the term "politics" refers to the way that countries are governed, and to the ways that governments make rules and laws. Politics can also be seen in other groups, such as in companies, clubs, schools, and churches.
The word politics come from the ancient Greek word politikos which means "of the citizen". Originally, politics referred to the public relationships between citizens themselves; it had had nothing to do with parties or politicians. Politics was about the ways in which ordinary citizens engaged each other across lines of difference, on matters of public or common interest.
Let's look at the older, richer view of politics.
The famous Greek philosopher, Aristotle, wrote that a human being is a political animal. In his book, Politics, he argued that the key element of politics is plurality or diversity of interests and views. People are all different and have different interests. Politics is the way that people from different backgrounds and with diverse views manage to negotiate their clashing interests in order to solve public problems. In this sense, politics can be everywhere and can involve everyone.
In 1532, Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in his The Prince, that politics was firstly about having and keeping power. He said that without power, a leader could do nothing.
In 1651, Thomas Hobbes wrote Leviathan, a book about politics. He wrote that people living in groups often give up some of their rights in exchange for some protection from the government.
In the 1800s, John Stuart Mill developed the "liberal" idea of politics. Mill said that democracy is the most important political development of the 1800s. He said that there should be more protection for individual rights against the government.
Around the 19th century, political parties began to dominate political activity in society. Gradually, political parties started organizing themselves on the basis of different ideologies like socialism, conservativism, liberalism, marxism, etc. These ideologies reflect different ideals of society and how it should work. As citizens choose to align themselves with one political party, they also develop strong prejudices about other parties and their followers. This is how political affiliation creates strong group identities and deep divisions in society.
In 1832, Bernard Crick wrote a list of the political virtues, which were about best practices of politics itself. They included but were not limited to:
Apart from these, there are other suggested virtues like humor, initiative, empathy, and compassion.
More virtues will lead to less conflict. None of these virtues can be forced on anyone.
It is very important to care about politics because you should know what is going on around you. Government and politics impact nearly every aspect of our lives. Whether we like it or not, the government determines the amount of tax we pay to the types of things we're allowed to purchase. Therefore, it is important to understand how the government works. This understanding helps to determine the best course of action for ourselves and our family, regarding a wide range of issues.
Having knowledge of politics help you make an informed vote. This doesn't mean you need to read every newspaper article or watch every television interview, but doing some independent research can arm you with the right facts to cast your vote.
A government is a system to govern a state or community. There are three main purposes of government:
Both of them study human behavior and give laws for it. However, politics law down laws to organize individuals and groups in order to bring about mass improvements; on the other hand, ethics is a more abstract study of right and wrong.
Ethics aims at the attainment of the ultimate good for the individual. It can be said that political laws should be of such a nature that they may facilitate as much as possible the achievement of the ultimate good. Many people think ethics is not practical, but without some agreement on ethics, there is probably no way to even have a debate, laws, or an election. There must be some agreement on ethics and personal conduct in a political system.
In this way, ethics is not a branch of political science and neither is political science a division of ethics, but the two are related. Politics should follow ethical principles.
There are different ways to conceptualize politics:
a. Extensive and Limited
b. Moralism and realism
c. Conflict and cooperation
There are three levels of politics
It describes the political issues that affect an entire political system (e.g. the nation-state), or refer to interactions between political systems (e.g. international relations)
It describes the politics of intermediary structures within a political system, such as national political parties or movements.
It describes the actions of individual actors within the political system. This is often described as political participation. Political participation may take many forms, including boycott, activism, petition, etc.
